Are Arab countries benefiting from their relations with Israel?

With the departure of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, it was expected that the curtain would be closed on a political era in which leaders exploit fear to fuel their political ambition and put their personal interests at the expense of national interests. However, it is unfortunate that a backlash cannot be ruled out if Israel’s new government collapses and the Republican Party, in its Trump guise, wins the presidential elections in 2024.
It is clear that Trump is seeking to orchestrate a Republican presidential victory in 2024 by influencing election laws to restrict voting operations, relying on the dominance of his supporters in state legislatures. Netanyahu is doing all he can to get some members of the right-wing parties that make up the new and fragile government to abandon him.
There is no doubt that if Trump and Netanyahu achieve their goals, it will have consequences for the Middle East region, perhaps the main victim of which is the chances of achieving a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
While the strength of the American political system lies in its ability to self-correct, the Israeli political system suffers from a structural deficiency because it does not grant equal rights to the Arabs within Israel who constitute 20 % of the population, in addition to their inability to formulate an agreed definition of “what Israel is”. Is it a religious state, a promising democracy or an occupying power? This means that nothing can be clarified if the government does not address a fundamental problem: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ”Israeli political commentator Dalia Sheindlin said in a recent New York Times article. This is the role of the international community in pushing Israel to correct its political trajectory.
The new Israeli government is unlikely to initiate or respond positively to new ideas aimed at resolving the Palestinian question. At the same time, unilateral and irreversible steps are not expected to be taken towards the annexation of the Palestinian territories. That’s not to say that he won’t take steps that stand in the way of the two-state solution to satisfy his far-right supporters.
Therefore, the Palestinians should seize this opportunity to prepare a new strategy that guarantees the realization of their national rights to establish an independent and viable state. Needless to say, Arab and international support will be crucial in this regard.
Over the past decades, Israel may have taken gradual and malicious steps to expand its control over Palestinians and their lands, but recent developments in Gaza, Jerusalem and inside Israel have yielded important conclusions, some news and others confirming previous findings: First, Israel, with its military capabilities, cannot ensure the security of its citizens. Second, the Arabs inside Israel have exposed the inability of the Israeli political system to guarantee equal rights between them and Israeli Jews. Third, there is growing international sympathy, especially among young people, for Palestinian rights. Fourth, there is a crisis in the Palestinian leadership. Palestinian disintegration remains the weakness of the “Achilles heel” that Israel exploits to avoid finding a solution to the Palestinian question.
Recent developments have demonstrated that despite the gains Hamas has made, it and the PA have come out wounded, as Hamas may have started to lose the internal and external support network it has always relied on. These developments have also demonstrated the need to hand over the Palestinian leadership to a new generation.
To do this, the Palestinians must reconsider their policies with the aim of developing a new strategy that creates the conditions necessary to negotiate with the Israelis a two-state solution by pushing the international community – especially the United States – to take a decision. series of measures consistent with international humanitarian and human rights law with the aim of preserving the possibility of reaching a two-state solution.
Such a strategy can be based on four axes:
1- Achieve Palestinian reconciliation, which ultimately requires free and fair elections. This is the role of Egypt, which bears the primary responsibility in this regard. It will have to convince Israel that it is committed and that it will not stray from achieving true reconciliation among the Palestinians.
2- Focus on the protection of Palestinian rights in international forums on the basis of respect for humanitarian law and human rights law, whether the Palestinians are under occupation or within Israel itself. It is imperative that equal attention be given to long-neglected Palestinian rights, including freedom of movement and protection from violence and discrimination, which calls for accountability for human rights violations. Undoubtedly, the unprecedented political participation of Arab Israelis in expressing their discontent with Israeli practices paves the way for an understanding between Jews and Arabs in Israel, which requires exploring ways to build a relationship between Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship and the rest of the Palestinians. Now, with the participation of Palestinians in the Israeli government, it becomes even more important for Palestinians everywhere. Here it should be noted that the Biden administration has announced that Palestinians and Israelis should be subject to “equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy,” a position to be relied on.
3- Reconstruction and development in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel on the one hand, and “Hamas” and the Palestinian Authority on the other, must understand the need for cooperation among themselves as well as with the countries and institutions that provide aid. a huge responsibility on Egypt to manage this process in a way that supports Palestinian reconciliation.
4- Take advantage of the fact that a number of Arab countries now have official relations with Israel to influence the latter by linking the development of these relations to Israeli behavior towards the Palestinians. Here it should be noted that the UAE has linked the implementation of its agreement with Israel to the latter’s abstention from taking unilateral steps to annex Palestinian lands, and this, in my opinion, represents the formula. minimum to which the Arab countries concerned must adhere to push Israel to respect Palestinian rights, that is to say to link the development of relations with Israel The positions taken by Tel Aviv towards the two-state solution.
In conclusion, not seizing this time slot to strengthen the negotiating power of the Palestinians will be another opportunity for Israel to avoid the creation of a viable Palestinian state. The failure of Arab countries to create regional and international conditions favorable to such a Palestinian approach will increase the chances of achieving peace and stability in the region.

City of “Middle East”